Cory also presented
a sermon on this subject in February, 2013. For the mp3 audio go to: http://kellercofc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/03-Why-We-Dont-Use-Instruments-02.mp3
For the accompanying
outline, go to: http://kellercofc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Bible-Question-Night-Why-Not-Worship-with-Instruments-2013-02-03-PM.pdf.
After Jesus Christ
shared the bread and the cup with His disciples at the Last Supper, the
Scripture says, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of
Olives (Matthew 26:30).” They proceeded to Gethsemane, where Judas
and the crowd came to arrest the Savior. Their singing serves as a powerful
example of worship. It was from the heart, it was full of faith, and it was
without mechanical accompaniment.
When Paul and Silas
were in prison in Philippi, though they had been harshly mistreated and
severely beaten, about midnight they were singing hymns of praise to God. The
prisoners were listening to them (Acts 16:25). Their singing, directed toward
God, had a tremendous impact on the lost people around them. They did not use
or need any instrumental assistance.
People often ask
regarding the worship of the churches of Christ, “Where’s the organ?” Or even,
“Where’s the band?” Is simple, unaccompanied singing in worship optional,
traditional, or eccentric … or is it biblical?
Let’s consider this
question first of all from the Bible’s teaching. Then let’s look at additional
matters that are historical and practical.
Biblical Reasons for
Singing without Mechanical Instruments
The New Testament
has all authority regarding Christian worship. Heb 8:13-10:18 While Christians
learn from the Old Testament’s unchanging principles, they do not follow its
specific means of worship. Incense, dancing, animal sacrifice, a separate
priesthood, the Sabbath, three annual holy feasts, and instrumental music in
the Temple worship were all part of the Old Testament administration. They are
not part of the New.
In fact, Jesus
Himself taught that worship in the New Covenant would be different from that of
the Old. Instead of a physical Temple in Jerusalem, with all the outward,
physical elements connected to it, He said, “… the hour is coming when neither
on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father … the hour is
coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is
spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John
4:19-24).
In the Old
Testament, instruments were used specifically as part of the Temple services
(2 Chron 29:25-30). So were other worship elements noted in the Psalms.
• Ps 20:3 Burnt
offerings: rams, bulls, and goats
• Ps 107:22
Levitical thank offerings
• Ps 50:8; 51:19;
66:13 Burnt offerings
• Ps 118:27 Festal
procession with waving of palm branches, as during the Feast of Tabernacles
(Lev 23:40ff)
• Ps 26:6 Levitical
altar
• Ps 122:1;
27:4 Temple in which God was worshiped
• Ps 5:7 Prayers
offered at or toward the temple
Therefore, one
cannot simply take authority for instruments, say from Psalm 150, without also
considering the other items in Psalms that were part of
the Temple worship system. One must look to the New Testament and
ask, “How did the early Christians worship?”
The New Testament
does not explicitly say, “You shall not use instruments
of music.” Neither does it in such a direct way prohibit sprinkling for
baptism, baptizing babies, praying to Mary, adding elements to the Lord’s
Supper, or installing and honoring a Pope. However, it implicitly forbids
all of these things by specifying certain other things. Thus it excludes all
substitutes or changes. This is “The Law of Exclusion.”
When we put together
a shopping list, we do not list the items that we are not buying.
Other items are excluded. If they are added, we will not pay for them! In the
same way, since God has specified the kind of music He wants in worship, He
does not have to list all the kinds of music that He does not want.
The New Testament
specifies that the music of the church is to be vocal music. The “instrument”
or “organ” is the human heart, giving praise to God through the lips. The New
Testament’s silence on the instrument is a thundering silence, especially in
light of the prominence of instruments in Old Testament temple worship.
Instruments were available for use; Christians from a Jewish background were
accustomed to them; but the early church did not use them.
Read and consider
Ephesians 5:18-21. Following the command to “be filled with the Spirit,” in the
Greek text there are several participles that describe what Christians do
who are filled with the Spirit. They are speaking …,
singing …, making melody in the heart …, giving thanks …, and submitting to one
another. Mechanical instruments are not necessary or expedient in
the carrying out of this teaching, nor are they capable of
speaking, singing, etc. Also consider Colossians 3:15-17.
Note the fact that
the New Testament references specify vocal music.
Matt 26:30 - sang a
hymn
Acts 16:25 - singing
hymns
Rom 15:9 - I will
sing hymns to Your name.
Rom 15:11 - Sing
praises to Him, all you peoples.
1 Cor 14:15 - I will
sing with my spirit and my mind.
1 Cor 14:26 -
Everyone has a hymn, or word of instruction. (This would have been the
place to mention instruments if they had been part of NT worship.)
Eph 5:19 - Sing and
make music in your heart to the Lord.
Col 3:16 - Sing
psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Jas 5:13 - Let him
sing songs of praise.
Heb 13:15 - The
sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name.
Music scholars, even
outside the Restoration Movement, acknowledge the fact that the early church
abstained from the use of such instruments.
¨Curt Sachs
of Columbia University, one of the most eminent musicologists of
modern times, has said, “All ancient Christian music was vocal.”
¨Lyman Coleman, an
outstanding Presbyterian scholar: “Both the Jews in their temple service and the
Greeks in their idol worship were accustomed to sing with the accompaniment of
instrumental music. The converts to Christianity must have been familiar
with this model of singing, but it is generally admitted that the primitive
Christians employed no instrumental music in their religious worship (The
Primitive Church, pp. 370-371).”
¨Joseph Bingham, of
the Church of England, in his book, Antiquities of the Church,
says, “Music in the Church is as ancient as the apostles; but instrumental
music is not.”
¨Hugo Leichtentritt
writes: “Only singing, however, and no playing of instruments, was permitted in
the early Christian Church (Music, History and Ideas, p. 34).”
¨Frank Landon
Humphreys writes: “The early Christians discouraged all outward signs of excitement,
and from the very beginning, in the music they used, reproduced the spirit of
their religion — an outward quietude. All the music employed in their
early services was vocal (Evolution of Church Music, p. 42).”
Also remarkable is
this. The term “a cappella” is Latin, meaning “in the manner of the church.”
The very existence of this term further evidences the fact that singing “in the
manner of the church” is singing without instrumental accompaniment.
In the past, some
who have advocated the instrument have tried to claim biblical authority for it
in the use of the Greek term psallo (> psalm) in Ephesians
5:19. They have said that the term meant to “pluck” a stringed instrument. If
so, each Christian is required to pluck a stringed instrument in worship!
In fact, the
word psallo appears also in 1 Cor 14:15 and Jas 5:13, where
only vocal expression is in view. The Septuagint (Greek OT) also sometimes
uses psallo in this purely vocal sense (Ps 135:3; 138:1;
146:2). If psallo in Eph 5:19 does allow or call for the use
of an instrument, that instrument is specified: it is the heart.
Historical Reasons
for Singing without Mechanical Instruments
These indisputable
facts are evident from a study of church history. First, churches did not use
musical instruments in worship for 600-plus years after Christ. Second,
Protestant groups did not use them just 200 years ago. Third, many religious
leaders have spoken against their use. Note:
¨Clement
of Alexandria (150-210 AD): “The one instrument of peace, the word
alone by which we honor God, is what we employ. We no longer employ the
ancient psaltery and trumpet, and timbrel, and flute.” As quoted in Restoration
Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 1, 1957, p. 3
¨Origen (325
AD): “For the unison song of the people of Christ is more pleasing to God
than any musical instrument. Thereby in all the churches of God with one
mind and heart, with unity and agreement in faith and worship, we offer to God
a unison melody in our singing of Psalms.” Quoted in Restoration
Quarterly, p. 4
¨John Chrysostom
(345-407 AD): “There is no need of lyre there, nor stretched strings nor
plectrum, nor of musical skill, nor of any instruments. But if you
choose, you will make yourself the lyre, putting to death the members of the
flesh, and making a great harmony of the body with the soul.” “But I would say
this, that in olden times they were thus led by these instruments because of
the dullness of their understanding and their recent deliverance from idols.
Just as God allowed animal sacrifices, so also He let them have these
instruments, condescending to help their weakness.” Quoted in Restoration
Quarterly, p. 45
¨Augustine (c. 400
AD): “Has not a rule been established in the name of Christ with
reference to those ‘vigils’ of yours, that harps (citharae, that is,
lyres) should be excluded from this place?”
¨Jerome (c. 400
AD): “A Christian should not know what a lyre or flute is, nor what their
use is.” Quoted on p. 144 in Instrumental Music in Worship, by
M.C. Kurfees.
¨Thomas Aquinas, a
leading Catholic Scholar of his age (1250 AD): “Our church does not use
musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she
may not seem to Judaize.” Quoted in McClintock and Strong’s
Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 739
¨John Calvin,
founder of the Presbyterian Church: “Musical instruments in celebrating
the praise of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the
lighting of lamps, the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The
Papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things,
from the Jews.” John Calvin’s Commentary, Thirty-third Psalm.
¨John Wesley,
reputed founder of the Methodist Church: “I have no objection to
instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor
seen.” Quoted in Clarke’s Commentary, Vol IV, p. 686
¨Adam Clarke, the
greatest commentator of all times among the Methodists: “Music as a science, I
esteem and admire; but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and
abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against
all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity.”
Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 686
¨Martin Luther
called the organ “an ensign of Baal”. McClintock & Strong’s
Encyclopedia of Music, Vol. VII, p. 762
¨Charles H.
Spurgeon, a very influential Baptist preacher in London years ago,
said: “Israel was a school, and used childish things to help her to learn,
but in these days, when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody
without strings and pipes … We do not need them. They would hinder rather
than help our praise. Sing unto Him. This is the sweetest and best
music. No instrument like human voice … We might as well pray by
machinery as praise by it.” Spurgeon would not preach in a congregation where
the instrument was present.
So the burden of
proof is not upon the churches of Christ, as if we must
prove why we do not use instruments. We need not feel
defensive. The burden of proof is on those who would introduce and
defend the instrument, without biblical warrant or historical
precedent.
Practical Reasons
for Singing without Mechanical Instruments
The introduction of
instruments, without biblical warrant, continues to create division. Churches
that use instruments have divided further over the question of what kind of
instruments they prefer. The “traditional” service will have an organ, while
the “contemporary” service will have a rock band. Singing without instruments
promotes unity, since everyone agrees that vocal singing is Scriptural by
itself.
The suggestion that
instruments are necessary to attract lost people, or young people, is very
troubling. The purpose of worship is to glorify God. The question is, “What
pleases Him?” The question is not, “What kind of worship do we, or the lost, or
the young, or the old, prefer?”
The use of
instruments has taken various church assemblies from edification to
entertainment ... from worship service to concert performance ... from
participation to passivity ... and from the spiritual to the mechanical.
Instead, we choose
to follow the simple, clear, New Testament teaching. The writer of Hebrews put
it this way: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of
praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Heb 13:15
